Photo: Popularly elected socialist president Salvador Allende speaking to supporters in Chile. He was elected in 1970 and overthrown in the U.S. backed coup of General Pinochet in 1973. Pinochet rounded-up thousands of leftists and labor leaders torturing, raping, and murdering them. The use of terror against the people was the only way Pinochet could re-install a pro-imperialist and pro-capitalist government on Chile.

Wall Street Journal Openly Calls for Pinochet "Solution" in Egypt

by Steven Argue

On July 4th the Wall Street Journal, in an article titled. "After the Coup in Cairo, The U.S. shouldn't cut off aid to a new Egyptian government", said:.

"Egyptians would be lucky if their new ruling generals turn out to be in the mold of Chile's Augusto Pinochet, who took power amid chaos but hired free-market reformers and midwifed a transition to democracy. If General Sisi merely tries to restore the old Mubarak order, he will eventually suffer Mr. Morsi's fate."

General Pinochet came to power in Chile in a CIA organized coup on September 11th, 1973 that overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende. After seizing power, Pinochet began a rampage of rape, torture, and murder of leftists and workers. Thousands of people were murdered after terrible torture. This CIA / Pinochet program of pacification was of course part of destroying all resistance to Pinochet’s capitalist tyranny. As a result of terror, Pinochet was then free to carry out a program of massive privatization that drastically hurt the working class and caused the economy to collapse. It was only after the re-nationalization of the banks and other emergency measures that the economy under Pinochet began to recover from Pinochet's free market policies.

That a major mouth piece of the American ruling capitalist class is openly calling for the program of Pinochet again in Egypt should be a warning of the deadly threat posed by the continued existence of the capitalist state in Egypt. That capitalist state, at its heart, consists of the military, police, and torture prisons. A fundamental error of Salvador Allende in Chile was that he made no effort to smash the capitalist state that eventually overthrew him. He also worked to disarm the working class, so when the military coup happened in Chile, the working class had no defense from brutal capitalist terror.

As with Chile, many reformists today repeatedly praise the “revolution” in Egypt, ignoring the deadly threat of the Egyptian military which receives $1.5 billion dollars in aid from the U.S. every year. Revolutionary Trotskyists understand the deadly threat posed by Egypt’s imperialist backed military, a military that has repressed the Egyptian working class for many decades. The Egyptian military has removed two hated dictators that it once supported, Morsi and Mubarek. It did this because in the face of mass mobilizations of millions of people, the military brass new full well that they could easily lose command of their military rank and file to the revolutionary upsurge. Yet, the military brass were only forced to take this action in order to save the capitalist state. Their future moves to defend that capitalist state will undoubtedly include continued repression of the working class and the left.

Now is not a time to be satisfied with celebrations over the departure of Morsi, nor is time to dissolve into Egypt’s left unity formations that oppose proletarian revolution. Now is the time to build a revolutionary workers party.

No Support to the Islamist Fanatics!

No Support to the Military!

Build a Revolutionary Workers Party Toward Proletarian Revolution In Egypt!

End U.S. Military Aid to Egypt and Israel!

End the Israeli and Egyptian Economic Blockade of Gaza!

End U.S. Imperialism through Socialist Revolution in The United States!

Solidly Leninist Article, Steven. "...deadly threat posed by the continued existence of the capitalist state in Egypt" Yes - however, among all the sloganeering, you fail to show the more backward members of our class the way towards its independence, how to build the "Revolutionary Workers Party" for our R-r-r-revolution.

What political forces exist in Egypt? To which quality (and quantity..) does the working class of Egypt currently have its own political organization?

If the goal in Egypt is to be a social revolution along *Class* lines (and not reactionary Religious tendencies, which currently is the more realistic scenario), then the goal and indeed duty, of all progressives and honest Proletarians must be the unification of all workers into their own social and political camp, a Party-movement; this naturally entails a tireless political campaign for a correct party program, against bureaucratic deviation from class independent politics etc.

But to what extent have the existing revolutionary proletarians of Egypt succeeded in dividing Egyptian social and political life along the objective economic antagonisms in society, Bourgeoisie and Proletarian? Obviously, they have failed despicably. The honest proletarians have failed to unite the existing radical left institutions and organizations around a revolutionary political program. The time for any kind of 'minoritarian' insurrection would have been while rage against Mubarak was reaching a tipping point last week, with policemen and soldiers reportedly joining the protests against the Islamist bourgeois government. But even if there had been some form of progress to unite and arm the existing radical left around a common plan of action (and making this Party capable of governing a country..) before last week: the inevitable Civil War on top of the crushed bourgeois State would prove to be be won by the Islamist Reaction, which have the millions of fanatic believers behind them and finances; if not it, the US Military would crush the young workers State and end all hope for progress in Egypt for years.

Without a united mass worker party-movement there can be no revolutionary success. It's silly to write slogans about the "proletarian revolution" when our comrades overseas, around the world and right here at home, are making strategic mistake after mistake and are mucking up the beneficial situations we currently still have: bourgeois 'democracy', Crisis and social decay. We have not had such revolutionary conditions in Europe and the West since the Second World War, and the Radical Left is failing miserably. It's time we stop chanting slogans and start criticizing, seriously thinking on our politics. This system is not only inherently unjust and wasteful, it is going to drag everything honest and pure down if we do not find our sense of urgency and build a vehicle for the working class to take power.